Friday, July 29, 2016

I’m wrapping up the week – and July –
with author Mark Carver. He’s
chatting with me about his historical fiction novel, Nikolai the Penitent: A
Novel of the Brotherhood of the Cross.

Bio:

Mark Carver writes dark, edgy books
that tackle tough spiritual issues. He is currently working on his eighth novel.
Besides writing, he is passionate about art, tattoos, heavy metal, and medieval
architecture.

Mark graduated from Toccoa Falls College in 2005 with a B.A. in English. After
living in China for more than eight years, he now lives in Atlanta, GA with his
wife and three children.

Welcome, Mark. Please tell us about your current release.

Nikolai the Penitent is a dark and brutal historical fiction
novel that takes place in Germany during the Black Death plague of the mid-14th
century. It was a time of ruin and despair and many believed that the
unstoppable plague was God's judgment for the sins. Superstition and
desperation was rampant, and one group that emerged was the Brotherhood of the
Cross, a group of flagellants that would travel from town to town, whipping and
beating themselves as atonement for God's wrath. What started out as a pious
movement soon became mired in corruption and hedonism, even to the point of
being explicitly banned by the Pope. The book follows Nikolai, a young man who
loses everything to the plague and joins the Brotherhood, on his journey of
seeking redemption for his own guilt and trying to make sense of the horrors around
him. It is a very grim and bloody story but there is also hope and forgiveness.

What inspired you to write this book?

A few years ago, I downloaded a free
e-book from Project Gutenberg called The Black Death and the Dancing Mania.
It is a historical account of the terrible things that happened during those
times. I came to the part about the Flagellants, and as Smee said the movie Hook,
"Lightning has just struck my brain." I knew I had to write a story
about these people, though at the time I was writing another book and had
another one planned after that, so the story had plenty of time to simmer in my
imagination.

Right now I am working on a
contemporary fiction story called Balor that blends the worlds of mixed
martial arts and Mississippi hoodoo. It is shaping up to be a very dark and
aggressive story that deals with the occult, inner demons, racism, and
narcissism. Look for it to release late winter/early spring next year.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I wrote my first story when I was
six but I didn't decide to make a serious push into the writing industry until
2012. An idea had been brewing in my mind for a while and one day, I thought,
"I'm going to write a book." That was more than half a million words
ago.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what
do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I would love to be a full-time
writer but until I get that Hollywood blockbuster movie deal, I teach ESL
classes for international students at a local university. I write for about an
hour each night after the kids have gone to sleep. Consistency is far better
than waiting for creative spurts.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I don't really do happy endings.
That's not to say that I only write unhappy endings, but things never wrap up
nice and neat in my stories. You know with a Mark Carver book that you're not
going to get a pat on the back and reassurances that everything will be okay. I
put my characters through the ringer and I know they hate me for it.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A paleontologist. I can still draw
an anatomically correct T-Rex from memory.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Any time you read a book, please
leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, social media, etc. Whether you loved it or
hated it, authors need all the help we can get from our readers.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

My feature today is a special excerpt from
the romantic mystery, The Empty Room
by Sarah J. Clemens.

During
her virtual book tour, Sarah will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble
(winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for
a chance to win, use the form below.
To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit
her other tour stops and enter there, too!

A little
bit about the author:

Sarah J Clemens is the
author of the debut novel, The
Empty Room. She began writing The Empty Room in 2008 and formed her own publishing company in
2016 called Off the Page Publishing.

Sarah was born in
California and now lives and works in Boise, Idaho. In addition to writing
fiction, she is a legal assistant with an Associate of Arts and a Bachelor of
Science in Criminal Justice.

A little
bit about the novel:

The small town of Eastbrook, Maine seemed like the
close-knit community where newlyweds Dean and Elizabeth Montgomery could begin
their lives together, and the 1901 Victorian seemed like the house they’d
always dreamed of owning. The only condition for purchasing the property was
that it was sold in “as-is” condition.

When the couple arrives in Eastbrook, they receive
anything but a warm welcome from the local residents. And when they realize
that as-is condition meant that the previous owner of the house had left every
worldly possession behind, the dream of the small town life starts to take a
mysterious turn.

Day after day, Dean and Elizabeth uncover more truths
than they could have ever imagined, or ever wanted to know about the secrets
that were hidden in the small town of Eastbrook. And as neighbors become
growingly hostile with every encounter, this young couple searches furiously to
uncover what the residents are trying to hide.

As their journey unfolds, Elizabeth goes missing and
Dean must turn to the very neighbors he fears may have known what would happen
to her from the moment the couple arrived for help. Because in this town, some
secrets are better off hidden.

Excerpt from The Empty Room:

The car grumbled to a stop at the
end of the gravel driveway. The three-day car trip was finally over. The gas
station food and bathrooms stops were all behind them. They were home. The
house might have been filled with someone else’s belongings, but they owned it
now.

The house
looked like a postcard from the outside. Small shrubs lined each side of the
driveway as it suspiciously winded its way to the front porch. The grass was
wet with dew after the recent rain.

As though
looking at a piece of abstract art, Dean and Elizabeth both leaned forward in
their seats toward the dash and squinted from inside the window of the car.
Their eyes moved from left to right, making sure to taste every detail that
first met their view.

“It’s gorgeous.” Elizabeth peered out from beneath the
windshield.

With her
eyes squinted and her mouth opened slightly, she studied every feature of
architecture as though the house would greet her with an exam before allowing
her to enter. She broke her concentration from the house and pressed her hand
to the passenger side window, looking up and down to visually imprint every
detail that awaited.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Today’s special feature is an interview with Simon Cann with a focus on his crime thriller
novel, Clementina.

During
his virtual book tour, Simon will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s
choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance
to win, use the form below. To
increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too.

Also, the book will be free on Amazon from Monday 25 July to Friday 29 July (inclusive).

Bio:

Simon Cann is the author of the Boniface, Montbretia
Armstrong, and Leathan Wilkey series of books.

In addition to his fiction, Simon has written a range
of music-related and business-related books, and has also worked as a
ghostwriter.

Before turning full-time to writing, Simon spent
nearly two decades as a management consultant, where his clients included
aeronautical, pharmaceutical, defense, financial services, chemical,
entertainment, and broadcasting companies.

He lives in London.

A little bit about Clementina:

Leathan Wilkey has been hired to
babysit Clementina, a seventeen-year-old whose rich daddy is going through a
messy divorce and is over-compensating.

Leathan soon tires of her spending habits, her selfie obsession, and her social
media preoccupation as his ward drags him from shop to boutique to jeweler,
approaching each with the self-possession that comes from a lifetime of getting
her own way and never once having to worry about money.

But when Clementina snaps her fingers and her boyfriend doesn’t come running,
something is up. He doesn’t appear because he’s been murdered.

When Leathan
investigates, he finds that the boyfriend has no background and met Clementina
through a connection made by daddy’s business partner.

Daddy’s business
partner who has been slowly and progressively putting daddy in a vice, grabbing
more of the business, and who is now menacing Clementina directly to manipulate
daddy.

How do you develop your plot and characters?

Slowly.

And
in tandem—as in, initially I develop characters and the plot at the same time.

I’ll
often have a story idea and know who my protagonist is. From there I’ll usually
work to the characters that the protagonist deals with in the first few scenes.
Often these will be less significant characters—or if they are more significant
characters, they’ll be doing less.

I
like to crank down the characters earlier on in a novel so that readers can get
their head around the basic problem that the protagonist is facing. If you
introduce readers to seven new people in the first three pages, you’re just
going to confuse them. I want to get with the story and THEN bring in
characters.

For
myself, I need to understand what each person wants. In other words, I need to
understand the characters’ motivations at a very primal level. I may or may not
share this with the reader, but **I** need to understand the character at that
level before I can seriously throw them into the mix.

When
I’m developing characters, I always make notes (I’m a plotter AND I keep a “story
bible”). These notes may not have any relevance or use for the reader, but they
help me understand who each character is, what drives them, and what their
limits are.

In
my books characters are always regular people. They may have a position, they
may have skills, but I never throw in special talents which can only be useful
if I contort the story. For instance, I would never give anyone skills as a
scuba diver and then have a story where the heroine was only able to save the
day because she had her scuba skills.

For
my plots, I find an interesting starting point, then follow where the story
leads. I’m a plotter and get detailed in my plotting (it wouldn’t be unusual
for me to create a 15,000 to 20,000-word outline for a 100,000-word book).

The
flip side to my plotting is that writing the book is comparatively fast for me
and usually there will only be one draft.

Excerpt from Clementina:

I stared up at the six-foot pile of brick held together by
cement, then turned to the fastidious man. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your
name.”

“Vianney,” he said.

“Vianney. Is this the only way out?”

He nodded, a precise tilt of his head like a movement
fashioned by a watchmaker.

“Do you know who is over the back?” I pointed over the wall.

A shake of his head, equally precise. I pulled out my phone.
Vianney shook his head again—three small twists. “No signal.” He pointed back
inside. “Seven paces.”

I took seven paces and got two bars. “We’re going out the
back,” I said when Reece answered. “I’m not sure what’s there, but come and
find us there.” Back outside, Clementina was still staring up at the sky.
“Ready?” I asked.

She seemed perplexed.

“We’re going to meet the neighbors,” I said, taking her
shiny bag and handing it to Vianney. “You’re going first.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“We’re going over the wall—you’re going first. Give your bag
to Vianney to hold.” I pointed to the large lump of leather still hanging from
her shoulder. “And put this back on.” I handed her the jacket I was carrying. I
was sure it wasn’t designed for rough and tumble, but I preferred it be scraped
rather than her.

“Why…?” she began.

“Because it’s the only way out, and you’re going first
because if I go first there’s no one to help you over the wall,” I said,
predicting her range of questions. “What else did you want to do today?”

“I wanted…” she began, slipping on her jacket. “That was
rhetorical, wasn’t it?”

The
one the spends all day sitting in a cave carving tales about other creatures
into stone tablets.

First book you
remember making an indelible impression on you.

The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth.

I
was probably about twelve when I read the book. To me it was a revelation—it
was the first time that I realized that a fiction could be so close to the truth
and that fiction could be set in the real world.

Please describe your writing space.

My
writing space is a room in my house…a small room—it’s six feet by eight feet,
and most of the space it taken up with a desk (the actual useable floor
space—without a desk or bookcases—is three feet by five…enough space to walk
into the room and sit on the chair).

When
I started writing full-time I took the door off the room because it just got in
the way and the space was so limited.

At
the opposite end from the door it a window which looks out over my street. It’s
a short road and I can see to the end of the street. If I crane my neck and
look to the left I can see the railway line which is the mainline to and from
central London.

So
far I think I’ve written upward of twenty-five books in this space.

I'm listed!

Blog Tour Partner - Goddess Fish

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About Me

I'm a NH native and love New England. I love writing about the region, exploring it on foot, on my bicycle, and in my car. There are so many small communities and fun and interesting people in this area, that I could be here a lifetime and not do all it is I want to do. :)

I'm a moderator at The Writer's Chatroom that hosts live chats with guest authors on Sunday nights 7-9PM EST. Join the e-mail list to get notifications of upcoming guests, then stop in and join the conversation!